Emmanuel Macron has unofficially launched his campaign for the 2022 French presidential election. His victory in 2017 was, to many overseas observers, a welcome repudiation of Marine Le Pen’s far-right politics. Yet Macron’s success hinged on a collapse in support for France’s center-right party, Les Républicains (LR),
The Washington Post reports.
Where do things stand now? LR has struggled in recent years, as a corruption scandal engulfed its presidential candidate, François Fillon, and the party failed to find an identity under a succession of underwhelming leaders. But the party’s fortunes could be about to change after choosing Valérie Pécresse to be its presidential candidate.
Pécresse is little known outside France, although her selection as the first female presidential candidate of a party originally founded to support Charles de Gaulle is destined to raise her profile considerably. Her political stronghold is the Paris region, where she is the elected president of the regional assembly. She has ministerial experience and served for many years in the French Parliament — but without leaving much of a mark.
Pécresse’s emergence as a contender for the presidency risks being overshadowed by the visibility of independent candidate Éric Zemmour.
Over the summer, he dominated French headlines with his ethno-nationalist provocations. Though he lacks a party affiliation and only declared his candidacy on Nov. 30, his poll ratings overtook those of Le Pen in October.
Much of Zemmour’s success depends on Vincent Bolloré’s media empire. Bolloré is a Breton billionaire with controlling interests in major TV channels, radio and print media, outlets that have provided extensive coverage of Zemmour’s polemics.
In one film clip, Zemmour challenged a woman in a Parisian suburb to remove her headscarf. It later emerged that she was not local, and she used to work for the Bolloré Group, which owns the news channel - CNews, Zemmour’s former employer - that filmed the stunt.
Recent poll data suggests that support for Le Pen is back up, placing her above Zemmour. Without a formal party to back him, he also faces an uphill struggle to get on the ballot in April. By law, each candidate needs the written support of 500 elected officials to stand for the presidency.